Perdura
by Paradox Polka-Dots
Summary: Out of all the difficult situations that could befall someone, none could have been more difficult than this. For how could she ever hope to escape from the clutches of The First, The Overlooker, The Near-God? Re-upload. T for safety. Slight Rob/Star.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Golly, I feel so formal. Tee-hee. I have produced this story partly because I always thought Starfire should have gotten her own season arc. I think it would have been fantasmic. Seriously. I won't make this super centralized on her though, every Titan is focused on during the story (so as to avoid a Starfire overload, which tends to be extremely common in these kinds of fics, am I right?)

Anyways, I apologize for this shorty-short chapter, but it is, after all, just the prologue. Regular chapters will be longer, believe me. One thing you should know before reading is that this fic will be told out of chronological order (oh yeah, cuz I'm cool like that). It adds to all the MYSTERIOUS mystery. It shall have three glorious time-lines (past, present, future, in that order), all pertaining to the same story (so no, I'm not skipping ahead of time to when the Titans are 'all grown up', each time-line is only a few weeks/months apart) I will try to follow a regular format for every chapter so you can keep up with the story and hopefully not be confused.

Oh, and never fear, for I shall make a handy-dandy Author's Note telling ya the format for each chapter before you read it. Huzzah! Now, enough of my nonsense, you may now proceed with the story :3

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you know I don't own anything. If I did, the world would be a happier place.

* * *

Drip

…

Drip

And this was the only sound heard. The water… dripping. And with it, it brought an immense hope. After all, there is no water in deep space.

Drip

Could this hope have been more bittersweet? It brought, along with its sound, a painful relief; this meant they were no longer hovering in the blackness of the cosmos, but it also meant that wherever they were was probably about to be destroyed.

Drip

How long had it been? Of course, it felt like eternity. It always feels like eternity. It's stereotypical, yet so, so true.

Drip

Her memory was faulty. A scream, a crash, impact, and a cold and piercing fear; it seemed distant, surreal in its blatant impossibility that they had somehow survived. Her senses we're slowly returning to her, the outside world becoming more tangible with each second. But along with this came the pain, the throbbing ache echoing in each of her limbs, that reminded her once more of the existence of reality. However, here was no time to brood on this as, abruptly, realization hit.

Drop

They we're on Earth.

* * *

In the dark corner of a crippled containment cell, a female figure lay; asleep, but stirring. A weak groan echoed through the almost empty chamber, hovering in the air before ceasing to reverberate and leaving the surrounding darkness untouched. Starfire, bruised and battered, opened her eyes to the unknown surroundings that encased her, and instinctively slid her palms over the ground as if trying to evaluate her surroundings through touch alone. Her arms struggled to lift her exhausted body away from the cold floor below her, and succeeded after seemingly too much effort. She was weak, that much was certain.

What had happened? Her head throbbed, and her memories were trapped behind a wall of pain induced mental fog. She attempted to lift her head, and winced.

She remembered one thing now, however. If she was here, where she thought she was, it could only mean one thing: she would probably never see her friends, or the Earth, ever again.

She slumped back towards the unforgiving ground and wept.

* * *

Gaaah. So. Short. *twitch*

You don't have to review just yet, since it's so very petite. Actually, it's kind of adorable, :D Whatevs man, next time, it'll be a whopper of a chapter. Woot!

*Edit* Had to re-upload because the horizontal rulers didn't appear in the last one. Grrr. It's all fixed now though. I also forgot to say the format for the prologue, *feels stupid* The first snippet takes place at almost the end of the present story-line, and the last snippet takes place at the very beginning of the present story-line.


	2. Chapter 2

New chapter! If... anyone... cares... (*sobs)

Yeah, to whomever it may concern, here it is for your reading pleasure. I apologize for the huge ass delay, but I do have a life besides writting this stuff. The good thing is, its long! Woot!  
I swear, I reread this so many times, I think it might be permanently ingrianed into my brain. But it was worth it to make it nice, long, and grammatically correct :D

**Present Timeline, Part 1**: **Alone**

**Disclaimer**: I. Own. NOTHING. NOTHING I SAY!!

* * *

**_Alone; Date: 20f_**

_Upon evaluation, I have come to the conclusion that the __mind is something that cannot be deciphered by conventional means. To try is a meaningless effort. To delve into the mind is to understand for only a moment, to experience just a fraction of the whole. I have attempted to comprehend something incomprehensible, and have learned thus._

_It is volatile, dangerous, easily fooled, entrapped and ensnared by whatever can overpower it. By nature, it must be polytypic. Mine cannot possibly be the only state of __mind; there must be others. I want to know of these others, to experience them as best I can, even if I can never truly feel them as my own. I want to see what these __minds are capable of: what they can create, what they can destroy, and what they can accomplish. I have felt the power of my own __mind, and it has terrified me. I fear I shall fall prey to temptation, to the darkness of the sensual world… and that darkness that resides in my own heart._

_Its capabilities are astounding, and have used them all: I have weaved fictitious tales of heroism, of goodness, of creatures beside myself; I have deemed what is good and what is evil, and it has created good and evil before my eyes; I have made resolutions, plans, and dreams with it, haunting and spectral but at the same time __real. But as I have said, all is not as harmless as it may appear. This __mind of mine has created logic, and though I hold it steadfast at this moment, it can very easily become a mutilation of what it once was, leaving no trace of truth in its wake._

_It must have __control. That is my only salvation. One must master the mind, the entity that is __us, and at the same time, not __us. To conquer it is to guard it from any heresy that might attempt against it. For a separate force, darker than the heart, stronger than the __mind, exists and threatens its very fabric of existence. I have felt this power, and it has stirred within me a burning aspiration that I cannot comprehend. It has changed me, and I fear it has already begun…_

* * *

As Starfire sobbed quietly into the ground, certain things became steadily clearer. The first and most blatant was the cold. In her weakened state, her usual endurance to it had almost nullified, and the air was icy and sharp against her skin.

Wiping away at the warm tears streaming down her cheeks, she noticed again how weak she was. Every movement seemed incomplete, undersized, and awkward. She blinked, feeling the full strangeness of the forgotten sensation, and tried to stem the flow of tears.

The second was the cell. As she could now perceive, it was undersized and bleak. There were no luxuries, no merciful beds or benches, just floor encased in high, barren walls. Curiously, the only thing to separate her and apparent freedom were a few bars of steel. If she'd had even half her strength, she could have easily escaped.

The area was not as dark as she had initially thought; through the dim lighting, she could make out certain structures in the exterior of her cell. As she had half-expected, large, intimidating looking computers and machines seemed to be arranged in no particular order throughout the room (as there always seemed to be whenever she landed herself in similar predicaments). However, this area seemed to age significantly in comparison to hers, as if the prison cell were a recent addition. Some computer screens bore large, crooked fissures while others were shattered completely; from the elevated ceiling hung countless, multi-colored cables, most of them frayed and apparently useless; everything was coated with a heavy layer of dust and grime, as if it had remained undisturbed for ages.

Starfire exhaled a lungful of air, producing a heavy cloud of mist. Being within reaching distance of the bars surrounding her chamber, she extended a slightly quivering hand and gripped one hard. She managed to heave herself upright, but still lacking the energy to stand, consented to kneel against the bars. She was breathing heavily: the air felt much thinner than what she was accustomed, and each breath was tedious. Starfire rested her forehead on the freezing metal, closed her eyes, and shivered, thinking too many thoughts at once.

She could not judge where she was by the look of her surroundings. It was all ambiguous, lacking any tell-tale signs of possible localization. But Starfire had only ever experienced this much cold in one place, even if she had been fit to endure on those occasions; that dark territory that her people were built for: the expanse of space.

A distracting factor presented itself in her throbbing skull. The cold soothed it as best it could, but how she had received a blow on the head evaded her, skipping along the edges of her mind with unparalleled apathy to her desperation. The only thing she could rely on to even begin to decipher where she was and what was happening were her memories. Memories that seemed to deteriorate the more she tried to remember, leaving nothing but doubt and frustration in their wake.

Suddenly, the temporary stillness was shattered by the sound of footsteps.

An innocent looking doorway materialized in the far left corner of the room, and through it stepped a darkened silhouette.

Even through the darkness, surprising herself slightly with having remembered as much, she knew who had walked in the room. Starfire lifted her head a bit too quickly, and found herself murmuring, through shivering teeth, "Psion…"

The entity called Psion appeared not to have acknowledged Starfire crouched in her cell, and stepped unwaveringly towards the alien looking technology that reposed, mostly in pieces, throughout the room. He walked with an air of power, of control, with such confidence that he seemed to be challenging anybody to defy him just to prove as much. He strode directly to the only machine that wasn't completely destroyed in the far right corner of the area: a large screen kept from crashing down by only a few dangerously thin wires and cables.

The computer had caved in on itself, almost collapsing entirely, and it seemed genuinely useless. Psion, however, grabbed its top and, without hesitation, set it in place. Dirt and dust came crumbling towards the ground while the machine screeched horribly, protesting against being moved. After a few swift connections and yanking at certain wires, he miraculously had it working again.

Psion extended his fingertips and tapped the computers screen. It recognized his touch instantly, as if it had after all this time remained faithful to its master, and imbued the room in the pale blue light that now emanated from its screen. It hummed quietly, as a stream of seemingly endless data began to flow throughout the monitor.

Starfire gasped in surprise, and swiveled her head, looking at her surroundings; simultaneously, the walls that encircled her began to glow in the very same bluish hue as the computer.

Starfire turned her attention back towards the machine, trying to decipher what exactly Psion was observing. His eyes never left the screen, and he began to murmur in a low, sharp voice:

"Carbon, 17 kilograms; ammonia, 4 liters; water, 33 liters; vorexium, 20 liters; lime, 1.5 kilograms; phosphorous, 750 grams; malgut, 11 grams; salt, 250 grams; saltpeter, 100 grams; sulfur, 80 grams; fluorine, 7.5 grams; termium, 51 grams; silicon, 3 grams; tenatium, 7 liters; and trace amounts of 27 other elements: all components of a standard and functional tamaranean body."

Starfire blinked in surprise; he was, by her knowledge, incredibly accurate.

He lifted his arms and extended his short, pointed fingers towards the monitor: immediately, there came projected in front of him a hologram of bright blue symbols. He began to type on the hologram effortlessly, as if it by this point came naturally to him.

"Slight dilation of pupils, easily repaired. Below-standard heart rate, easily repaired…" he continued, never stopping the rhythmic movement of his fingers.

Then he paused, seeming to meditate over his next words. Though Starfire couldn't see it, he squinted slightly as he observed the information on the screen.

"Loss of coloration due to sodium chloride deficiency… Easily repaired."

Starfire gasped. She remembered now.

Flashes… only seconds, but she could see it clearly in her mind: her last moments on Earth.

Her eyes shone vibrant green, and her strength returned to her briefly enough to somewhat crush the metal bars in her hands.

"Answer me Psion, why have you brought me here?!" she shouted furiously, ignoring how alien her voice sounded as it reverberated accross the room.

Psion did not reply immediately. The silent interval between question and answer was nerve-wracking, but he refused to look towards Starfire's direction at all. Starfire's gaze never left his shadowed figure, and she squinted at him mistrustfully.

And he spoke, gravely, and more to himself than to answer Starfire's demand: "I am in need of your abilities… Koriand'r."

She flinched at the sound of her name; it sounded almost foreign to her ears after its perennial of neglect. Its use made her feel almost indignant, as she felt he had no right to call her by it.

"What _abilities_ are you speaking of?" she questioned, trying to subjugate her anger.

Psion did not speak. He placed his arms behind his back, causing the hologram to shine unsteadily and vanish, and walked back towards the open archway through which he had entered, ignoring Starfire completely. The computer flickered once, twice, and its screen became opaque once more. Starfire observed him walk and followed his trail with her gaze, brows furrowed and fresh resentment shining in her eyes. When he came upon the exit, he paused under the thin metal archway, and spoke without once looking back:

"You will have a thorough medical examination in 26 hours time, and shall remain in confinement and under surveillance until then."

And with one step he disappeared, and the doorway swished shut with an echoing thud.

He was gone before she could reprimand him, and left Starfire mulling over his last words. She stared at the spot where he had disappeared, aggravated to the point that she actually let out a slight scream in frustration. Her anger dissipated rapidly after it: the sudden burst of fury and energy that had come with the encounter had left her completely drained. Without meaning to, she tumbled backwards; however, she did not get back up. Starfire was left face-up, arms outstretched, staring quietly at the ceiling.

_Medical examination_: the words rebounded through her mind indiscreetly, begging to be thought of. As she tried to keep calm, she could already feel her eyes stinging with tears. She shut them tightly, willing herself not to cry; even though she was alone, she felt she couldn't appear vulnerable to the metal shell that enclosed her… the only thing weak in a prison of steel.

And it so happened that, at that moment, one thing stood out through the storm: that out of all the difficult situations that could befall someone, none could have been more difficult than this. For how could she ever hope to escape from the clutches of The First, The Overlooker, The Near-God? Psion was a creature of legends, an entity shrouded in a veil of obscurity that, if spoken of, was never understood. She herself had been taught of him back then, when she was still the princess of Tamaran in the making, and the subject was treated with an almost dark caution.

Psion was supposedly a being so ancient that he was actually the _first_, the original life. He was supposed to have seen the beginning of time, the birth of the cosmos, and even to have taken _part _of it. He was allegedly the only living thing to know _everything_, every detail and intricacy of time and space, and thus, supposed to have unimaginable powers comparable to that of gods. Yet the tamaranean scholars had taught her that nothing was certain, that the idea of _Psion_ was flawed. His story being so primordial, they, the scholars, could no longer distinguish fact from fiction, myth from reality, when speaking of him. Some even doubted his existence. But Starfire knew he was real, _alive,_ and that he had walked across from her mere moments before.

She couldn't stop herself from crying again; already, the warm wetness of tears was staining her cheeks. She found herself missing her bed terribly, and wishing she could hang her head of its edge instead of resting it on what felt like a block of ice. Thoughts of home filled her head, and as exhaustion crept upon her, she slipped into the dark, tantalizing comfort of sleep.

* * *

_Exhausted, heavy breath; a sense of urgency and a bitter, overpowering fear._

"_Robin!"_

"_We did it Star. All we have to do is breach the back entrance, and—"_

"_N-no, Robin… you do not— no…"_

"_Starfire? Starfire, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."_

"_I-I…"_

_Words have failed, but she knows what she must do. It is time to act._

_

* * *

  
_

An entrance materialized to the right of Starfire's cell. She jumped, startled awake, and hurriedly sat upright; wiping tears away from her cheeks and trying to regain her composure as quickly as possible.

She had expected to find herself face to face with Psion once more. Instead, what stepped through the doorway was a hulking, seven foot tall reptilian body resembling a heavily built anthropomorphic lizard. Muscled and daunting, dark, olive scales were visible between rifts in its armor, and through its helmet, squinted, unblinking eyes shone back at her: red.

Starfire, through firsthand experience, could tell from its build that it was male and approximately middle-aged by the species' standards. The Gordanian walked into the room noticeably cautiously, as if expecting to be reprimanded for being someplace it shouldn't. After his initial prudence, its gait relaxed and its heavy tail swished smoothly with each of its steps. Starfire observed him curiously, not knowing whether to be hostile towards this new encroacher, or to remain quiet.

Then, the Gordanian approached Starfire's cell and bowed.

Starfire was stunned; mouth agape, she stared at the Gordanian in utter disbelief. Without a word, he ended his courteous gesture and, as he erected himself, they were suddenly face to face.

The face that stared back at her was a familiar one. War bitten and frayed, she could see in his factions that the years had taken their toll on both his body and mind. The hope was gone from his eyes, but in its place was a wisdom that only experience could have sculpted.

He turned slowly, calmly, and walked away.

"W-wait!"

Starfire's voice stopped him in mid step. He turned, and as his solemn stare found hers she swallowed hard, regretting her interruption. She leaned back abruptly, trying impulsively to shield herself from the power of his gaze; had she not been tightly gripping the metal bars of the cell, she would have collapsed entirely. There was a mysterious force about the Gordanian that she could not explain, yet she somehow knew that he was not to be feared, but deeply respected.

She recovered her senses, and leaned forward: she would speak to him as an equal.

"Who are you?" she said, her voice dwindling in volume.

He spoke without hesitation, in a low, coarse voice, and with a strange tranquility that seemed out of place in the current surroundings: "I am General Ragort of Karna."

"Why did you bow to me?" Starfire asked, refusing to hesitate now either.

"I understand it is customary to bow when in the presence of royalty, princess Koriand'r"

Starfire was silent. Somehow, all words had gone from her thoughts. The General turned away without another word.

She exhaled, feeling relieved. She consented to observe the General: he strode to the center of the room and stood. His eyes swept the area briefly, his body remaining completely still throughout the process.

"May I… ask what you are doing?" Starfire said, sounding wary.

The General looked back at her. "I am examining the area for faults. As you can see, it has been rather neglected these last few millennia."

"Millennia?" she asked, disbelieving. "How long has this… place, existed?"

Suddenly, he appeared pensive. His eyes squinted as he looked upward, deep in thought.

"I cannot say." answered the General.

Starfire did not dare speak again. There was a delicacy in the atmosphere that seemed to stifle any other possible sentiments. Yet, even so, there was no awkwardness in their silence.

The General nodded at her. She nodded back, slowly. With this, he departed, leaving the room just as still as before.

Somehow, her soul was eased. General Ragort was a strange character: he seemed to naturally inspire a sense of calm, and trust, that perplexed her slightly. It made her think of why he would ever cooperate with a being like Psion. But she did not think of the General's involvement with Psion's plans; not then.

The pressing matter were her memories. What happened before she was brought to this ancient place was lost to her, locked away from her conscious mind, and it brought a sense of panic back to her thoughts. The only moment she could recall was her last one, and even it was still vague and, without the rest, useless. It was not only her she was worried about, what had happened to the others was even more crucial; she needed to know.

Ignoring the cold, the thinness of the atmosphere, and the ominous tremors that shook the prison cell, she leaned back, closed her eyes, and remembered.

* * *

Oh yes. OC's. Usually, I hate OC's, but in order to make the story work (and reduce the redundancy/triteness levels) I needed to. However, they borrow heavily (like, REALLY HEAVILY) from DC comic book lore, so I have redeemed myself slightly, right? Anyone who knows the comic book will know who Psion is (even though I've taken the entire race and made it so that its just one Psion... named Psion... yes.)  
General Ragort is an OC. HOWEVER there is something about him that relates to the show. If you catch it, don't tell (but let me know. I would like to see how many astute people there are out there :D)

Keep that snippet at the beginning of the chapter in mind for chapters to come. It will be explained later.  
The Italic conversation after Starfire falls asleep is supposed to be a dream about the last moment she remembers. But, I have kept it vague. It shall also be explained later.

Yes, I shall now beg you for reviews. PLEASE!! (If I get lots 'o reviews, I might be motivated to make speedier updates!)

P.S. That line where Psion lists the 'components of the average tamaranean body' was paraphrased from the first episode of _Full Metal Alchemist_ (giving credit where credit is due). I just really loved that part where Ed explains what's in a human body,and I thought it could give a nice touch to that dialogue. I am aware that some of them do not exist, those I made up because I thought it would be weird to have an alien made of only stuff found on Earth.


End file.
